Psychological Options for Wellness and Recovery (POWeR) Trial for Veterans With Chronic Back/Neck Pain

Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn which treatment works better for veterans with chronic neck or back pain. This study is comparing three treatments: Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and usual care (whatever a person is already doing to cope with their pain).

The main questions the study aims to answer are:

1. Which treatment works better for lowering pain: PRT, CBT, or usual care?
2. How do the effects of PRT compare with CBT and usual care in terms of pain relief and other factors such as emotional functioning, quality of life, anxiety, and pain medication use?

Participants will:

1. Be randomly assigned to receive either PRT, CBT, or usual care.
2. Complete questionnaires about their pain and health.
3. If in the PRT or CBT group, have nine weekly therapy sessions over video calls with a therapist.

Conditions

• Chronic Pain
• Back Pain
• Back Pain Lower Back Chronic
• Neck Pain

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Pain reprocessing therapy (PRT)

A promising new psychotherapy for chronic pain

BEHAVIORAL

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Chronic Pain (CBT-CP)

A psychotherapy for chronic pain that has 30+ years of research support.

OTHER

Usual Care

Participants will be asked to continue to do whatever they are currently doing to manage their pain.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System

  collaborator FED

• United States Department of Defense

  collaborator FED

• University of Colorado, Denver

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Jonathan K. Ashar, PhD · University of Colorado, Denver

• Joseph W. Frank, MD, MPH · VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2026-03-27

Primary Completion

2028-01-31

Completion

2028-09-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations